A few days ago, our stomach's curled reading an gruesome and callous opinion piece in the Washington Post, "I would have aborted a child with Down Syndrome: women need that right."
Tonight the legal aspirations of the former met the cold-hearted world-view of the latter when Federal Judge Timothy Black issued an injunction to prevent the Down Syndrome Protection Act from going into effect. You can read the 22-page decision here. The story made national and international news, at least part of it did.
What has not yet made any of the dozen or so mainstream news articles that we've read is that Justice Black was a former President of the Board, board member at large, and attorney for Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati before being appointed to the federal bench. You can read his biography submitted when he was appointed to the bench here. You can read an article by the Associated Press from when he represented Planned Parenthood in Court three decades ago here, and you can read an article from 2014 when the conflict of interest came up during another lawsuit that would determine if the Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati would stay open.
Judicial venue shopping is not new, and there is little doubt that the reason so many abortion lawsuits are filed in Cincinnati is because abortion advocates know that they have a friendly venue when going up against a judge who served as the Chairman of the Board and legal counsel for Planned Parenthood. Let's be honest; to argue that aborting a child once it has been indicated likely to have a disability is a special right that women need to preserve is a tough argument to make in the court of public opinion. In that case, it helps to have a friendly judge.
This situation, frankly, is the cause of a gamut of emotions: anger, grief, and compassion are at the top of the list. Underneath all of them, however, is one that we do not talk about quite as often: resolution. More than anything, when I read about this, I am resolved that we can do a better job of standing up for the unborn, defending those who are weak or different or disabled.
Will you be resolved with us?